The Sonics will play Olympia’s Capitol Theater on New Year’s Eve, manager Buck Ormsby announced.
It will be only their second regional appearance since launching a comeback bid in late 2007 (the enigmatic band’s previous local show having taken place during the Nixon administration.)
The wait also is nearly over for new Sonics tunes. The band plans to release a new EP, called “8,” featuring four new songs, “Bad Attitude,” “Vampire Kiss,” “Cheap Shades” and “Don’t Back Down.” And Ormsby was cautiously optimistic that it would be for sale by year’s end.
“I’m gonna get it into the stores before we go over to Europe (in December) – hopefully,” he said. “When I get back here, we’ll be able to fix up distribution here. But it will be in the stores – the locals, you know.”
Live versions of Sonics classics “Cinderella,” “Psycho,” “Strychnine” and “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark” will fill out the B side of the vinyl version. Ormsby said the CD and digital versions will also have “The Hustler” and “Boss Hoss.”
Guitarist Larry Parypa produced the new mini-album with Northwest super-producer Jack Endino, a guy known for his work with Nirvana, Soundgarden and Seaweed, among others.
“I’m really glad they called me because I pretty much get exactly what they do and what they are,” said Endino, taking a short break from recording Seattle gypsy-punk band, Kultur Shock, at his studio, Sound House Recording.
“How many bands have I recorded that have covered Sonics tunes?” he mused. “It’s probably been quite a handful over the years here and there. So I feel like I know their music pretty well just from watching band after band doing these sort of respectful covers.”
Parypa and his bandmates were attracted to Endino because of his ability to capture a tough, raw sound.
“We had no reverberation, no effects on any of the tracks,” Parypa said. “It was just real raw (and) most of ’em we just finished off on one pass through on the basic tracks.”
The band wanted to update it’s oft-imitated sound without straying too far from its roots. “They’re not trying to sound like 1964,” Endino said. “They wanted a good, modern-sounding rock recording that sounded like a band kicking ass in the studio.”
“I actually wrote the music on these songs, and I ended up playing more like I did towards the end of the Sonics, which was more of a shredding sound” Parypa said. “That seemed more of a natural way to go to me.”
Endino described the new cuts as “very lively. The stuff is very spunky. You know, there’s a garage element. There’s a bit of an R&B element, all of which was in their music, buried in those dirty (’60s) recordings. (There’s) classic, old-school type of guitar playing from the ’60s. This is what the Sonics might have sounded like in the early ’70s if they had kept playing, gotten better and better and had access to better recordings and better studios. This is what they might have sounded like.”
Larry’s brother, Andy Parypa – a Seattle resident who was also a member for the Sonics’ classic lineup – plays bass on the new songs. It’s his first significant contribution to the band since the 1960s.
“He likes recording, but I don’t think he’s fond of wanting to get onstage or anything,” Larry Parypa said. “I know he doesn’t want to travel.”
From the classic Sonics lineup, Larry Parypa, vocalist/keyboard player Jerry Roslie and sax player Rob Lind still play with the band. Drummer Bob Bennett lives in Hawaii and has only played with the band once, on Halloween in 2008 at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre.
Ricky Lynn Johnson plays drums. Freddie Dennis took over bass duties from Don Wilhelm last year and also sings lead on some songs.
ERNEST JASMIN: 253-274-7389, ERNEST.JASMIN@THENEWSTRIBUNE.COM, BLOG.THENEWSTRIBUNE.COM/TACOMAROCKCITY
